In recent years, the popularity of social-networking websites (such as FACEBOOK and LINKEDIN) has dramatically increased among Internet users. Some social-networking websites allow users to create personal profiles that enable users to stay in touch with one another. Social-networking websites may also allow businesses to create commercial profiles in order to advertise to users of such websites. Unfortunately, some users of social-networking websites may incorrectly presume that social-networking profiles (particularly commercial profiles) are immune to or protected against malicious attacks, potentially giving such users a false sense of security when browsing these profiles. Unfortunately, social-networking profiles, including commercial profiles, may not be completely secure.
For example, a malicious programmer may gain illegitimate access to a commercial FACEBOOK profile (by, e.g., using a man-in-the-middle attack or exploiting a security vulnerability in a social-networking API) and then publish a malicious link on the commercial profile. In this example, the malicious link may appear to have been published by the business associated with the commercial profile. Since the malicious link may appear to have been published by the business, a credulous FACEBOOK user may naively click on the malicious link posted by the malicious programmer without considering the security implications of this act.
As such, the instant disclosure identifies a need for systems and methods for determining whether social-networking profiles have been compromised in order to minimize the amount of harm caused by malicious attacks directed at social-networking profiles.